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Friday's Most Active Threads

by Jeff Steele last modified Jan 14, 2023 11:20 AM

Yesterday's topics with the most engagement included Keenan Anderson, ways posters are cheap, stay at home moms and marriage dynamics, and an unruly child.

Yesterday's most active thread was the redshirting thread that I discussed yesterday. So, I'll skip that one and go to the next most active thread which was titled, "Keenan Anderson - black teacher killed by LAPD" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. Anderson is a DC school teacher who was visiting Los Angeles. After becoming involved in a traffic accident, Anderson flagged down a police car. According to the police, Anderson began behaving erratically and multiple officers attempted to restrain him. Ultimately, the police would taser him seven times and, four hours later, Anderson suffered cardiac arrest and died. The use of force by police against black men is obviously a very contentious issue that has been much debated. As such, many posters have reflexive responses to incidents such as this. Some posters immediately blamed the police and the tasering, despite the fact the impact of the tasering is not yet clear. For other posters, there is apparently nothing that could convince them that the police acted wrongly. These posters are big on advising others to "just comply" and demonstrate no sympathy or understanding for those undergoing mental health crises. What is probably most striking is how different posters could watch the same video and come away with markedly different perceptions. Some saw a man in distress being confronted by police whose actions escalated things. Others viewed it as Anderson resisting attempts to prevent him from harming himself or others. Similarly, there are striking disagreements about the racial aspects involved, with some seeing racism as self-evident and others going to great lengths to deny that race had any role in the event.

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